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From the Technical Director:
Compensation Data for Fire Protection Engineers in 2011

By Morgan J. Hurley, P.E., FSFPE | Fire Protection Engineering

In late 2011, the Society of Fire Protection Engineers conducted its
biennial compensation survey of the fire protection engineering
profession. A total of 745 people from 41 countries responded to the
survey, with the majority (86%) living in the U.S. (Canada had the
second largest number of respondents, accounting for 3% of the responses
to the survey.) Overall, the survey found that the median salary of
fire protection engineers increased 2.9% over the median salary in 2009.
Even during the current difficult economy, fire protection engineers
saw an increase in their salaries.

The number of fire protection engineers
who are unemployed (6.2% at the time the survey was conducted) is a
decrease from the 7.2% who indicated that they were unemployed at the
time the 2010 survey was conducted. In the U.S., 5.5% indicated that
they were unemployed at the time the survey was conducted in 2012, which
was well below the national unemployment rate.

The median total compensation earned by
fire protection engineers with zero to two years experience was about
$60,000, which increased markedly to over $75,000 for those with three
to five years of experience. The median total compensation showed a
steady increase during the first 20-25 years of experience, at which it
reached a plateau (at approximately $125,000 per year). However,
salaries at the 75th and 90th percentiles continued to increase beyond
the 25th year of experience, ultimately reaching a 90th percentile value
of $217,200 for fire protection engineers with 31 to 35 years of
experience. Incentive-based pay accounted for a significant amount (a
median of 8.3%) of compensation earned by fire protection engineers.

As one would expect, salaries steadily
increased with increasing job responsibility. Fire protection engineers
with the lowest level of job responsibility received a median total
compensation of $62,000 per year, while those with the highest level of
responsibility received a median total compensation of $150,000 per
year.

Compensation varied somewhat with the employment sector in which fire
protection engineers worked. Overall, 43% of respondents worked in
consulting, 21% worked for local, state or federal government (excluding
the fire service), 14% worked for insurance companies, and 5% worked
for the fire service. In general, fire protection engineers who worked
in the insurance industry received the highest compensation (about 8%
higher than those who worked in consulting). Fire protection engineers
who worked for government agencies received about the same amount of
compensation as those who worked in consulting, while those who worked
for a fire service received about 20% less compensation than those who
worked in consulting.

The level of education influenced the median
compensation earned by fire protection engineers. Fire protection
engineers with a master’s degree had a median total compensation that
was from 3% to 14% greater than that earned by fire protection engineers
who only had a bachelor’s degree, with the greatest differences
occurring for fire protection engineers with 10 or less years experience
and for those with 26 or more years of experience.

As with prior surveys, earning a
professional engineers license had a significant influence on the total
compensation earned by fire protection engineers. Fire protection
engineers who had a P.E. license earned about 20% more than those who
did not have a P.E. license.

The country in which an engineer worked also had
an impact on the compensation earned by fire protection engineers;
however, due to the low number of responses from countries other than
the U.S., these results should be viewed skeptically. Fire protection
engineers from the U.S. and Canada earned comparable total compensation
($113,500 and $111,000, respectively). However, fire protection
engineers in New Zealand earned less ($93,000) while those in Australia
earned more ($219,000). (All values adjusted to U.S. dollar
equivalents.)

The full report is available free-of-charge to SFPE members in
the SFPE Knowledge Network.

About SFPE

SFPE is a global organization representing those practicing in the fields of fire protection engineering and fire safety engineering. SFPE’s mission is to define, develop, and advance the use of engineering best practices; expand the scientific and technical knowledge base; and educate the global fire safety community, in order to reduce fire risk. SFPE members include fire protection engineers, fire safety engineers, fire engineers, and allied professionals, all of whom are working towards the common goal of engineering a fire safe world.